On Dec. 31, Walt Disney Co. will pull the plug on the cable network it created 14 years ago to
squeeze extra life from its popular daytime dramas.

But, like all great soap-opera characters, this one didn’t go down without a fight.

Disney announced three years ago a plan to end Soapnet to make space for Disney Junior, a
network for toddlers. That network launched in early 2012, but cable and satellite operators — not
wanting to lose legions of vocal fans — weren’t ready to give up Soapnet.

So, for almost two years, the entertainment giant has provided programming for both
networks.

In the end, Soapnet was a casualty of a shift in corporate priorities for Disney — and
technology.

The network, which launched in January 2000, was created to give workingwomen the opportunity to
catch up on their favorite soaps —
General Hospital,
All My Children,
The Young and the Restless — at night after work. Other soaps were brought back from the
dead for a second run — including
Ryan’s Hope and the prime-time drama
Knots Landing.

The network became a big moneymaker, allowing Disney to boost profits through additional runs of
soap episodes, which attracted new viewers and advertisers, and programming fees from cable
operators.

“When Soapnet launched, it was back in the videocassette-recorder days, and you really could
record only one episode at a time, and you had to deal with all those cassette tapes,” said Ed
Martin, a soap-opera expert and editor at large at MediaPost. “Soapnet made it easy to follow
multiple soap operas at the same time.”

But the digital video recorder changed all that. Today, almost 50 percent of homes with pay
television have DVRs, according to Nielsen.

Only four soaps remain on the broadcast networks:
Days of Our Lives on NBC,
General Hospital on ABC and
The Young and the Restless and
The Bold and the Beautiful on CBS.